To the Point

Baseball: Labor, Luxury Taxes and Revenue Sharing

The unity of last year's dramatic and perfectly timed World Series is all but forgotten. Today, as a new season gets under way, billionaire owners and millionaire players are at it again. There is no contract between owners and players, and negotiations have stalled over league downsizing and revenue sharing. Can this year's baseball season be completed without a work stoppage like the one that cancelled the World Series of 1994? We look at the competition in sports labor relations and other tribulations of owners, players and fans with former Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, the one-time owner of the Minnesota Twins, a former players' union advisor, and a baseball fan. Newsmaker: Bush's Low Key Response to Middle East During a photo opportunity today, President Bush indicated that he would stick by two US initiated plans to end the violence in the Middle East. Robin Wright, chief diplomatic correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, indicates that there's growing fury in the Arab world and increasing pressure at home for Bush to take a more active role in securing an end to the violence in the Middle East. Reporter's Notebook: Suicide Bombing in Israeli-Arab Community of Haifa The City of Haifa has been a place where Israeli Jews and Arabs have always gotten along, and Matza's Restaurant was symbolic of that hopeful fact. Run by an Israeli Arab, nobody thought it would be targeted for a terrorist attack. Yesterday, at least 15 people, including a suicide bomber, were killed there, and 41 others were wounded. Still, Haifa's mayor, Amram Mitzna, expresses hopes for continued Jewish-Arab cooperation in the city.